Clockwork Not Ticking Properly
by Akaiba
Summary: SLASH Hatter refelects on his history with Mad March and wonders if maybe he could have changed anything. No real spoilers if you haven't seen the mini-series, fic is set as a flashback.


Niggling idea that wouldn't leave me alone after the scene where Hatter sees March and says "It can't be..."

Hope you enjoy it. I haven't posted here in a while, sort of migrated over to LJ. :)

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Hatter's hands feel cold. He stares at them oddly but can't bring himself to move them closer to the fire. He's felt cold since that afternoon. Alice is watching him oddly from across the fire and he can feel her gaze on him, trying to disect his strange behaviour but no matter what she can puzzle out he guesses she will put it down to his wonderland-ness. He's not going to talk to her. Not about this. He just needs to shake the cold and slow his racing heart. And definitely not talk or think about it. But he can't stop himself.

Hatter remembers. He remembers everything.

Always has.

He can remember when Mad March had a head. His head- not one that had been found to serve the purpose of a head. Dirty blond hair and glittering dark eyes, always one thought away from snapping your neck or proposing something inapproriate. He can remember when the two of them were inseparable. Since children they had been together. Mad March was two years older and had found Hatter scavanging around the streets for food, avoiding the Suits and stealing from those too doped on emotions to notice. March had caught him when Hatter had tried to steal from his pocket. Hatter let his mind swallow him in the moment when he realised trying not to wasn't going to happen.

Fear gripped the eleven year old boy as a bigger hand clamped around his wrist, wrenching it back and throwing him against the wall. His head hurt, his ears were ringing and his mouth tasted metallic but he only grunted as he opened his eyes- glaring at his captor.

Two pitch black eyes met his and then teeth bared in a laugh so dark and dangerous it was more like a snarl than an actual expression of amusement.

"Hungry, are ya?" The older kid laughed again.

"Let go o' me!" The younger demanded, thrashing for all he was worth in an attempt to throw off the grip on his wrist and throat. He couldn't even use his free hand to attack with because if he didn't hold onto the hand around his throat he would choke from gravity alone. Hatter's glare intensified as he stared at the older boy from underneath tangled hair and a hat far too big for his head.

"Ya think youse jus' going to get away with picking my pocket?"

"Thought I'd give it a shot."

The older laughed. "I like you." He said once he was done. "What's your name?"

"Don't have one. People just call me Hatter."

"'S good a name as any." The elder suddenly let him go and Hatter's feet hit the floor hard, almost buckling if the lighter haired boy hadn't seized his hand in a handshake that was so strong it kept him upright. "I'm Mad March."

Hatter wrinkled his nose. "'Mad March?'"

"Yeah, now... what youse hungry for?"

It had been a fast friendship. They had been a great team- stealing what they needed, mostly from the Suits when they dared. And the older they got the more they dared. And the more insane.

March seized the teapot from off the table of the newly 'acquired' teashop. They were only seventeen and nineteen years old respectively but their eyes showed a darker, much older history. Besides, time passed very slowly in Wonderland. So slowly it sometimes didn't even pass at all. "Tea and cake." He laughed, throwing his head back until he was almost bent backwards. "Tea and cake and nothin' goes better than tea and cake."

Hatter grinned and hopped over with his hands held as if clutching pen and paper. "May I take your order, sir?"

March looked at him scandalised. "Oh, Hatter no!" He put the teapot down and seized Hatter by his shoulders, dragging him to the front of the mish-mash of tables and sitting him down at the head roughly. "Ya would never take the orders. Ya sit right there."

"Here?" Hatter adjusted his hat absentmindedly, looking a bit confused.

"It's the head o' the table, the place where the host o' the tea-party sits." March explained.

Hatter seized the elder's cuff. "But it's our tea-party!"

March grinned again, his scarily large teeth bared and it still sent a shiver down Hatter's spine to see those carniverous teeth in a human's mouth. "No, Hatter. It's always been youse tea-party." He pulled away. "Besides, I'm going to sit right here." He tapped the table to the right of Hatter and his grin windened. "We should serve scones."

"With butter!" Hatter chimed in animatedly.

"Jam?" March suggested.

"Oh yes."

March froze suddenly and cocked his head, inclining it to the door. "Quiet, Hatter." His brow wrinkled before his eyes widened in fright. Like an Oyster caught in the lights of a scarab. "Suits!" He pulled Hatter up by the scruff of his neck and hauled him away, into the back room.

There was grass on the floor and flowers here and there. Hatter had never smelled anything so... natural. He was about to say something when March tugged him under a fallen beam and into the darkest corner, shoving him against the wall and clamping a hand over his mouth. His hard gaze clearly said 'Don't say a word or I will kill you myself' and Hatter didn't doubt him so he nodded. Slowly, March removed his hand.

Then they heard the doors burst open from the front. Hatter jumped and stared wide-eyed from their hiding spot at the door between them and a room full of Suits. March squeezed his wrist tightly.

It didn't take long for them to come into the back room but each second built up Hatter's fear until when the door was opened and he nearly screamed in fright. He hated feeling this cornered and vulnerable but March's grip was tight on him and he just shook.

The Suits upturned the ruined furniture and rummaged through the debris and forgotten things. They had obviosuly found out about March and Hatter's not too unknown news of opening a teashop... without paying for it. They were just going to take the abandoned shop which, Hatter defended, was an act of improving the community- if Wonderland could still be said to have a community. It wasn't like the Queen was using it anyway. One of the Suits gripped the beam to lift it and Hatter pressed back in fear and alarm, flush against March as he couldn't even close his eyes, staring at the fingers wrapped around the beam just in front of them.

"Hey! You two- Three of Hearts and Six of Clubs, come help me move this." The two mentioned suits approached and the beam groaned in protest as they lifted. Hatter's breathing was heavy and panicked but it couldn't be heard over the groaning metal, March was tugging on his wrist to get his attention but Hatter could only hear the blood pumping in his ears.

When he saw the beam lift and saw the Suits' knees he lunged forward. Ducking under the beam like an acrobat he was upright and in their space before they could react. Like it was a reflex Hatter pulled back his right arm and flattened the first guard like he really was a paper card. The second Suit fell similarly, too stunned to react. The third had let the beam drop back and was reaching for his gun but Hatter hit him too. He was getting ahold of himself and staring at his hand like it wasn't part of him and didn't notice the other four Suits at all.

March did. When Hatter came back to himself he looked over, as if only just remembering there were other Suits, to see March stood in the middle of their collapsed bodies, two knives in either hand and blood splattered over him, soaking into the grass. He glared at Hatter who jerked back in alarm. He cringed as the elder stalked over, expecting some sort of an attack- as one would from a blood-soaked man- but he recieved none. Instead, March just grinned at him, apparently not concerned with the fact Hatter had revealed them both to a room full of Suits. "Since when could youse do that?"

Hatter blinked and then shrugged. "Forever, I guess. I just never tried."

March inspected the first Suit Hatter had hit and cuckled loudly. "Ya shattered this guy's jaw." He said, as if he were announcing their new tea-shop's specialty's. He glanced over at the other two. "That one won't see outta that eye ever again and that one... hahahahahaha!!" March fell to the grass and laughed until he was shrieking. "Hatter! You're brilliant!"

Hatter looked at the bodies around them, the spectacle of his best friend on the blood flecked grass and his own right hand, resting so innocently at his side. His eyes were wide with adrenaline and alarm and fear and fright... he laughed. He fell to his knees and laughed until he was crying, shaking sobs that sounded mad and crazed as he shook and laughed and laughed. March shakily sat up and wrapped his arms around Hatter until they were both hugging each other and laughing and crying. Hatter could feel blood rubbing off March's jacket onto his face and he felt sick.

It had been the first time Hatter had ever let March see him cry.

When they were still the same ages, in Wonderland time- in Oyster time they were about thirty-seven and thirty-nine respectively, The Red Queen's Suits caught them. They had fought tooth and nail to get away but there were so many suits and it only took one misjudged punch to be grabbed and then they all piled on them.

They were thrown into the same cell and Hatter crumpled before the door shut. March glared at him. "Get off'a the floor, Hatter. Get some dignity." He snapped.

Hatter lifted his hands from his lap and showed a white-drawn face and red-stained hands to his friend. "I have dignity. I'm just confused."

March's eyes went wide with shock. He knelt down and pressed Hatter to lying, leaning over him to see his thigh. "Confused about what, my most insane hat-maker?" The insanity flowed freely when March was scared and Hatter had only ever seen it happen a few times. He felt comforted that March cared but he already knew that the older male cared.

Hatter laughed and wiped his blood-stained hands on his pale face, smearing it over his lips and cheeks and into his hair. "Why is it so hard? It can't be a riddle if it doesn't have an answer... riddles, riddles, riddles..."

The sandy haired male took off his coat and folded it, slipping it under Hatter's head, and then tore off his shirt sleeve and tied a tournequet around Hatter's leg as Hatter laughed and hissed through the pain. "Tell me the riddle, Hatter, maybe I can help?"

"Do you know the answer, March?" Hatter gripped March's arm painfully tight, pulling the elder closer. "Tell me you know, please! It's making my head hurt with its stupidity and unsolvable-ness!" He thrashed about in frustration.

March pinned him with two strong hands, one on Hatter's chest and the other on his shoulder. "Keep still. Now."

Hatter ignored him and laughed and laughed. He looked up at his friend through glassy, desperate eyes and begged him. "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" March stared at him. "Please! March, you have to know! No one knows and you have to! I'm going to go mad if I don't know!"

March looked down at his stricken friend and shook his head. "I dunno know, Hatter." Hatter groaned in agony and frustration, squeezing his eyes shut and turning his head away. "I do not know why a raven is like a writing desk." He ran a hand through Hatter's tangled hair and smiled. "I do not know."

Hatter screamed and laughed until he fell unconscious. When he woke up he was in the Hospital of Dreams, his leg bandaged and comfortably numb. March was nowhere to be seen but the attending nurse said it was March who had brought him in.

A drop of drowiness and contentment and he was under again, the world a distant, fuzzy myth he didn't have to deal with. In his dreams he had a giant tophat and a pocket watch and March had long brown rabbit ears, they were gathered around a long table heaving with teapots of all shapes and sizes, tea cups that didn't match and all the scones and cakes he could imagine... must be the drugs. Though the song sounded familiar.

The second time he woke up it was to darkness. He rubbed sleep from his eyes and smacked his lips at the foul taste the come-down left in his throat. There was a shadow in the window and he looked over aprehensively. This side of the glass in his room a figure turned, looking from the corridor to Hatter. It was March. Only, he looked different.

"March?" Hatter tried to lever himself up but he only struggled a little higher on the pillows before losing his strength.

March didn't smile. Didn't laugh. Didn't move. His gaze was cold. Hatter had never been threatened by his insane friend but he felt his blood run cold. He needed a cup of tea.

Hatter reached out, straining to reach his friend again. He knew March needed something, maybe Hatter could help. He cried out softly as the movement jarred the stitches in his leg and his arm began to fall. March was across the room in a flash and caught his arm, stilling him with a hand on his chest. Hatter felt certain his friend could feel his thundering heart, could taste the aprehension tinged with fear that ran through him.

March considered his young friend for a long, long moment. Almost as long as time, it felt to Hatter. Then his friend pressed his forehead to Hatter's and sighed. "I think... I think I've gone mad." Hatter blinked and then laughed but he quieted when March didn't join in. It wasn't really funny. But then again, it never was.

"Me too." Hatter grinned. He clutched at March's hand and felt every one of his fears and his worries about everything evaporate. They usually did when he was with March.

"Hatter, you've always been the sanest person in Wonderland."

"You wound me."

March drew back slightly. "How is your leg?"

Hatter blinked slowly. March was speaking in logical thoughts and it scared him slightly. He hadn't laughed for once, his accent more pronounced when not punctuated with laughter or a change in tone. He was calm, or at least not switching from emotion to emotion. It was really unnerving but they had yet to discuss what had happened, maybe something bad? Hatter cleared his head and fixed his friend with a bright grin. "It's fine. Hurts a bit but the nurses are keeping me high on good feelings so I'm pretty fine with it at the moment."

March scoffed. He had always hated the emotion fix the Wonderland occupants were so fixed on getting. It was an addiction without necessity to the point of dependency. Hatter smiled at the flash of emotion and felt himself relax.

Until March leaned in, their faces so close their noses bumped. His eyes went wide but as he opened his mouth to speak March's own mouth closed over his and their tongues tangled. It was so strange and shocking that Hatter just let March kiss him, barely responding until he felt the hand that hadn't left his chest tighten on his hospital gown. He felt his eyes close and he responded, tilting his head upwards and moaning soflty, so softly it was almost a whine.

Maybe March was right. Maybe he was sane. He'd certainly not thought about that before. But did that make him sane or insane?

March pulled back again, this time all the way back so he was barely touching Hatter at all. The younger man cocked his head and gazed at him in confusion, wondering why his friend had stopped so suddenly. March shook his head and hung it, hunching over himself as if about to laugh or cry. "Ya too much, Hatter."

Hatter struggled, this time successfully, to sit up and he reached out to March again. His hand closed around the back of March's neck, his right hand and Hatter felt March shudder under the gentle pressure of his ridiculously powerful right hand. He just touched him for a moment, letting the silence swallow them and fold them away into their own world before he broke their peace. "March... what's happened? You are okay right?" March turned away. "March..."

March turned back with a sadness on his face. His teeth were bared in his terrifying snarl of a smile and Hatter felt himself go cold again. "I've done a bad thing, Hatter..." He hung his head again. "A really bad thing."

Hatter's eyes widened but he brushed it off with shaky enthusiasm. "Nothing a cup of tea won't fix."

"Hatter-"

"Tea and cake!" Hatter insisted. March tried to put his hands on the agitated young man but Hatter fought him off, avoidong eye contact. "Scones and jam and butter and cream and tea and sugar!"

March pinned him down and the two of them screamed into each other's faces the same song, "Twinkle, twinkle little bat! How I wonder what you're at!" As Hatter heaved for air March straddled him on his stomach, not putting pressure on his leg but close enough to be a threat if Hatter didn't shut up.

"Hatter, I had to." March said slowly and evenly. "She was going to kill ya..."

"W-what?"

March relaxed the grip he had on Hatter's shoulders and sat back on his knees, watching as Hatter's eyes- still blown wide with agitation and aprehension- stilled on him, their brown colour looking so soft and innocent when compared to his hard black eyes. "S-she said, seein' as youse were injured, ya wouldn't last long enough under torture to get anything out of ya. She wanted information about the resistance."

Hatter shook his head vehemently. "We're not a part of the resistance! We run a tea-shop!"

"Ya forgot we took down seven of 'her Suits just us two. That makes us a threat and probably part of the resistence." March shook her head. "I didn' correct her."

"March... what had you done?"

"I... I bargained ya freedom." March said solemnly. "Told 'er royal no-fun-ness that I's the best assassin the resistence 'as got. Told 'er I took the seven guards out myself. Told 'er youse just a nobody." March cupped Hatter's cheek. "Nobodies don't know nothing." His accent was stronger when he was serious and Hatter liked serious even less than he liked calm.

"March..." Hatter closed his eyes against the tears he felt building and thats when he heard the fair haired man laughing. Lowly and nothing like the shrieking peals of laughter Hatter was used to but still laughter.

"She let ya go, Hatter. See? I had to..." March's dark eyes were crinkled as he laughed, his words almost lost between his grinning face.

Hatter gripped the hand resting against his face tightly, pressing it closer and just touching his lips to the palm- not even really kissing but just glad to be near. "March, what did you do?" His voice was shaky but firm.

The elder male looked down at Hatter like he was looking at something no one else was privy to, staring down at something Hatter wanted to see. "I am now her majesty's chief assassin."

Hatter saw March's head fall but it felt like he'd be disjointed from his body again, the man kneeling over him was crying and laughing- wracking sobs and actual tears that Hatter had never seen fall from his dark eyes- and shaking with the shock of it all but Hatter hadn't moved. His body was frozen, so terrified he couldn't even comfort his friend.

Blinking he sat up, propping himself on his arm before pitching forwards and running his hands over March's arms and face and chest as if the elder might disappear at any moment, as if to memorise him and never lose him.

"No... you can't! She can't-can't... you can't work for her! No, March! We can run away- far away where she'll never catch us!" March was shaking his head, his head in his hands and his mouth wide in a grin as tears streaked his face. They were beyond friends- they had been brothers for such a long time it felt like Hatter was losing a part of him. He couldn't let go. "We can run so fast she'll never catch us, find our own piece of Wonderland that she can't have and we'll have tea parties every day and it'll be just us!" Hatter pulled on March's arms desperately. "Come on, March! Please don't do this!"

March lowered his hands to the blanket and fixed his younger half with a wry smile. "Ya could never run far enough or fast enough. Ya know that. Youse just got to do as I say, Hatter."

Hatter thumped him weakly with his left hand, not nearly angry enough to use his right. "You won't even try, you quitter! She'll get you for sure!" Hatter snorted and collapsed onto March's chest weakly. "What am I saying?! She already has you! You traitor!" He hiccuped and dug his nails into March's chest. "Traitor!"

March wrapped his arms around his oldest friend and held on tightly as he rocked them both gently, his insane chuckles sounding in the younger's ears as his tears wet Hatter's dark hair. "Never, Hatter. She'll never have me. I'd say I belonged to youse but I don't belong t' anyone. I'm free. No matter what chains she puts on me I will always be free- you as well. We're free together."

Hatter cried into March's chest. "That's the sanest thing you've ever said."

"Don't insult me, please." They held onto each other and laughed and cried until Hatter laughed and cried himself into an exhausted sleep. March bundled him back into his bed, tucking him in tightly.

And when Hatter had awoken March wasn't there, just his now customary hat- then brand new- lying at the foot of his bed. He had screamed and screamed and laughed and laughed, ripping out his stitches and punching hard onto the glass front of his room with his right hand until glass rained down on him. Then he'd punched the other walls and the floor a bit until most of the skin not on his right hand was flecked with plaster and knicked from the glass.

The nurses had to sedate him with exhaustion rather than drowsiness as any neutral or postive emotions in that obvious state of severe distress would have made him breakdown.

The resistence sought him out, tried to convince him to join them. He wouldn't. He withdrew back his tea-shop and didn't throw another tantrum, didn't get angry, didn't break anything or laugh or cry or anything. He still set a place for tea on his right side at the table though, ignoring all the other guests and leaving Dormouse to take care of it all. Gradually people stopped buying tea. Even their really strange flavours. All anyone wanted was emotions and Hatter could relate. He needed a drop of hope just to get out of bed. He began selling emotions. People paid big for them and he was able to strike a deal to get wholesale stock from the Casino itself and then he used the money to provide for the refugees and get them food, water, clothes, transport. Anything.

He wanted to get the Red Queen's attention, become a problem. Then she would order him elimanted and he'd kill every Suit sent after him until he found March.

But he needn't have bothered with his scheming. Dodo was being a much louder, more annoying nuisance and about three weeks in wonderland time later- many years in Oyster time- Hatter went to the drop-off point to meet with Dodo and found two people instead. One was Dodo, looking very alarmed at the gun pointed at him, and the other was March, holding the gun pointed at Dodo. The two of them were arguing loudly and didn't see or hear Hatter until he was running at March.

March started in alarm, tensing as if about to be hit, but Hatter's arms just wound themselves around March's waist and held on tight. "March! You bastard!" He yelled, breathing in the scent of the only person he would consider family though the word barely described them at all.

"Hatter..." March hugged him back with one hand, the other unwaveringly holding the gun at Dodo. "Ya shouldn't be here."

Hatter pulled back and shoved him a little. "_You_ shouldn't be here, at least not like this. But I am glad you're here at least." He gripped the cuff of the elder's dark jacket. "Now I forbid you to leave. It's _my_ tea-party, remember? You have to do as I say." It's child-like and innocent and so desperate but its no use.

"Hatter..." March began, sadly. He closed his eyes and looked straight at Dodo. "Seize 'em both."

"Wha-!" Hatter choked, staggering back.

Suits swarmed the roof, guns out and aimed at both Hatter and Dodo. Dodo darted forwards and grabbed Hatter, using the younger man as a shield and aiming his own gun at March.

"Dodo! What the hell are you doing?! Let go o' me!"

He was ignored but he saw March staring straight at him, his dark gaze never flickering from Hatter's face. He signalled for the Suits to halt.

"Resistence!" Dodo hollered. "Attack!"

Bullets went flying as resistence members appeared, Hatter couldn't even see where they'd been hiding as he was shoved roughly by Dodo and crashed to the floor, smacking his chin off the gravel and splitting his lip. He clutched his precious hat to his head and rolled into a crouch before ducking as he tried to stand, bullets and fists flying around him.

Peering through the mass of ragged clothes and regimented uniforms Hatter spied March. He was racing away over the roof in pursuit of Dodo, shoving his way through Suits and the resistence alike.

"March!" Hatter shouted, running after them before he'd even considered it properly.

Dodo reached the roof edge and peered over hopefully. Nothing but a sheer drop stared back and he turned, looking to make a mad dash but March was there already. Hatter stopped a few feet away as he saw them. His grin and elation froze on his face, slipping away as if washed away as Dodo lifted his gun pulled the trigger. March was struck in the shoulder and his gun went off, almost reflexively, and Dodo fell clutching his arm.

"MARCH!" Hatter screamed. March fell to his knees, his back arched as he stared at the sky, his gun slipping from his hand. The younger man was slipping on the gravel as he ran to his friend's aid. "March!" Hatter exclaimed desperately.

March looked up at Hatter and smiled. "Tell me the answer, Hatter. Tell me you know."

"No, March, stop it." Hatter hissed, his hands pressing to March's shoulder to stop the bleeding. He pressed it hard and ignored March's hiss of agony.

"Have we danced this dance before, my darling?" March mumbled, possibly referenceing when Hatter had been shot or maybe just mumbling nonesense, either way hatter didn't stop to think it over.

"Shut the fuck up, you loony!" Hatter snatched up the gun and hauled March to his feet with his right arm, refusing to let him fall.

Dodo cried out 'after them' but Hatter whirled around with the gun and fired at Dodo, missing wildly but getting his message across as the Resistence member's stepped back a ways.

"Don't even try it!" He snarled, hurriedly staggering away while holding up his friend.

They made their way back to the tea-shop, Hatter pointedly ignoring March's half-crazed cries and mumbles of 'this is the first place they'll look', 'you've blossomed since we last met' and 'twinkle, twinkle little bat'. He swept bandages into a bag, stuffing a few sheets as well- extra bandages-, scooping up all the emotion jars he could reach and then picking up the bag, the gun and lifting March up they continued on. And up.

Moving diagonally away and ever upwards until they were in an abandoned area of Wonderland's skyscrapers Hatter found a room with a bed and laid March down. Tearing open March's bloodied shirt Hatter set to work.

"The clock is two days to slow. Two days too slow, thats what it is. Mustard." March groaned as Hatter pressed gauze to his shoulder. Hatter disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a grubby bowl of water, setting it down he methodically began to clean away the blood. "Up above the world you fly... how about a nice cup of tea?" Hatter chewed his lip agitatedly as he peered into the wound. He could just make out the back of the bullet and he was no medical expert but he knew that it had to come out. He pulled out a teaspoon from his pocket and looked grimly at the wound. Taking a deep, shaky breath he pushed the small scoop into the hole and under the bullet. "THE TIME!" March screamed, his hands clenching into the threadbare mattress as he threw his head about in agony, desperately trying to lie still. "THE TIME!" Hatter gritted his teeth in sympathy as he began to lever the bullet out of March's shoulder. "WHO'S GOT THE TIME?!" The bullet popped out with a sickening 'pop' and 'squelch' noise that had Hatter gagging. He threw the bullet aside and began pouring alcohol over the wound, doing his best to ignore March's screams and shrieks.

Bandaged and doped up on two drops of bliss and one drop of happy, March was settled quietly on the bed with Hatter sat at the foot of the bed, watching him without a sound.

"Why did you save me?" Hatter asked after an hour of silence that grated on them both. "Just to make me watch you destroy yourself."

March sighed and looked up at Hatter and the younger was truly scared and excited by what he saw in those dark eyes. It was an emotion he'd never seen in a bottle before and he wondered what it would taste like. What March could possibly want was beyond him but he recognised, instinctively, that it was something he wanted too.

"Clockwork's not ticking properly." Hatter muttered decisively, hugging his knees to his chest and looking away. "Maybe crumbs... in the butter." Hatter closed his eyes as March used the arm on the side that hadn't been shot to pull Hatter closer until the younger was leaning over him, almost a mirror of that last time they had seen each other. "Not ticking... ticking properly." Hatter's eyes closed again as March's hand wound through his hair. His shoulders slumped, his spine untensed and he relaxed with a deep breath of air. If everyone knew how easy it was to make Hatter docile his business would be ruined but March was an exception to this and every rule.

March didn't say a thing but he didn't need to. Hatter leaned down of his own accord and they were kissing again. It was as jolting as the first time and when their mouths opened Hatter jumped a little, propping himself up over the elder man and kissing him fervently, feverishly as March pushed a hand under his shirt.

They broke apart with a gasp. "Youse wearing the hat..." March mumbled thickly, his voice deep and rasping and Hatter knew that emotion anywhere- despite the fact he could pratically taste it. Lust. Though he hadn't fed March any.

March had felt it all on his own. Hatter smiled. "Yeah..."

March surged up and kissed him again, the hand under Hatter's shirt just caressing every inch of skin it could reach.

It felt nice. Not rushed or so lustful it lacked care. Just... nice. Like a hot cup of tea. Though Hatter reckoned the taste of March's mouth was more addictive than even that. He'd missed this closeness even if the kissing was new- with the exception of the hospital 'incident'. He'd missed having someone to come home to and someone to ruffle his hair and make him tea and tell him he was stupid for playing chicken with the Suits. He'd missed March.

He pulled away from the kiss and buried his face into March's neck, inhaling deeply as March did the same. They sort of had a thing for smells. It was wierd but at least they had it in common. The tea-shop didn't even smell like March anymore, his bed was begining to smell like Hatter as the younger kept slipping into it when he couldn't sleep.

"Don't go..." Hatter whispered into the soft skin. "Please... stay with me."

March cupped his face again and tilted it so he could kiss him, deeply and overwhelmingly until Hatter's eyes had to close for fear of staring into the black depths opposite him that threatened to drown him in that emotion Hatter couldn't- wouldn't- name.

The sandy haired head cocked and Hatter knew what that meant. He was fixed with a look he remembered all to well. "Hide under the bed, now Hatter." March hissed. Hatter's mouth opened to protest- least of all about the hiding spot- but March growled at him. "Get under the bed or I will kill you myself." Huh, so Hatter had been quite accurate with his deciphering of that look before.

Hatter slipped under the bed as he began to hear the footsteps himself. Thundering up the stairs of the building like there was an army of them. Hatter curled up right underneath March but couldn't shut his eyes as he stared at the tiny part of the door he could see.

When it was thrown open it was all he could do not to jump.

"March. Trying to escape?" The feet and lower leg were clad in a black robe. An important Suit no doubt. Hatter pressed his hand to the underneath of the matress in an attempt to offer support to March.

"Ten of Clubs. Not at all." March said by way of greeting. "I got shot."

"I can see that. How you got all the way from the rooftop to this side of town in your state is another matter." Ten of Clubs slowly paced around to the left side of the bed and Hatter wondered if snapping his ankles was a wise move when he could make out at least six or seven pairs of feet this side of the door and more beyond it. "Assisstance from the Hatter?"

"Any Suit on the roof 'ill confirm he helped me." March snapped. Hatter cringed, he hadn't exactly been subtle. He'd been more concerned with his bleeding friend but that might cost them.

"Did you forget to tell him about the tracker we put in you?" Ten of Clubs mocked.

"I sent him away. If you're looking to capture him, you won't." March laughed. "He's a fast little shit."

"Indeed. At any rate, you've forced my hand. The Queen ordered us to eliminate you should it appear your loyalties were divided."

"We had a deal-!" March snarled.

Ten of Clubs silenced him. "We had a deal that your obedience would save the Hatter from her wrath but he's proving to be more and more of a substantial asset to the Resisitence and you, her favourite assassin, would never kill him." Hatter's eyes widened in horror as he heard the scraping sound of metal on leather- a knife being unsheathed. Hatter recognised the sound from when March would pull out his knives. "Any last words, Mad March?"

"No room. No room." March hissed.

"Pardon?" Ten of Clubs faltered.

"I order you stay perfectly still." Hatter knew that was meant for him and he hugged hismelf tightly, wishing it was all a horrible nightmare- all of it! He'd wake up in his bed at the tea-shop and March would make him a cup of tea to calm him down. "It's very rude to sit down without being invited."

"You raving lunatic..." Ten of Clubs scoffed.

"I'll say. It's very, very rude." March disolved into laughter, the bed shaking with his giggles, high-pitched and hysterical.

There were no final words. Hatter didn't even know it had happened until the bed jerked finally and then there was stillness for a moment. He heard the knife hit home and then slip out with a wrench of metal on bone. March cried out in pain and the bed fell still but then it began to shake again as he laughed, wetly and thickly from his throat. Ten of Clubs turned and left without another word, the Suits following him and all echoed out with March's broken laughter.

Hatter scrambled out from underneath the bed and stared down at his friend. Just below March's ribcage, too far from his heart to die quickly, there was a deep, wide hole where the knife had punctured. Hatter's hands flew to it while his brain pointedly ignored there was little to no chance of doing any good unless they could miraculously get to the Hospital of Dreams within the next thirty seconds. But the staff would just poison March. He was the Queen's favourite assassin after all. March trembled and shook and coughed weakly until his lips were stained red.

"March!" Hatter looked his friend up and down frantically. "Oh, God, please no..." March snatched up the gun on the bedside table in limp fingers. "March, what the fuck are you doing?! Why the fuck didn't you shoot the bastard before if you knew that was there?!"

The sandy haired man grinned. "Cos I don't want to be her tool anymore." He lifted the gun to his head.

"What the fuck are you doing!?!" Hatter screamed, smacking the hand away and glaring down at the March as if he had truly gone so far off the deep end there was no hope at all.

"That cow, the Red Queen, she..." March coughed again, spitting blood down his chin. "She can bring me back. Carpenter's a fucking demon. Don't wan'a be her... tool." March clutched his stomach and winced in agony. "Gotta mess up my head... can't bring me back if i don' have a head."

Hatter gripped March's shirt tightly. "Please... March..."

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" March wheezed.

The younger collapsed to his knees and gasped. "I-I don't know. I don't know!"

March sighed. "Maybe no one does." He pressed the barrel of the gun to the side of his head next to Hatter, his foresight telling him Hatter probably wouldn't appreciate being sprayed with bits of his brain and skull if he did it the other side. "It's enough to drive you mad!" March laughed and squeezed the trigger.

The gun might has well have been pointed at Hatter's heart. As the gunshot went off his eyes widened in horror, watching the other side of Marchs's head explode and spray onto the wall. He watched the head fall forwards and blood oozed everywhere. Hatter dropped his head into his hands and felt something wet smear over his face. Looking into his hands he saw they were covered in blood from where he had touched March's stomach and shirt. His face was now painted with his best friend's blood.

Hatter felt cold. Drawing out of his memories he stared into the fire and tried to ignore the bone-deep feeling of isolation loneliness, guilt, loss and cold. So cold. He couldn't remember what happened after he'd left March's body slumped on that bed. Other people had told him he went on something of a rampage for three days, killing every Suit he found. After three days he'd collapsed from exhaustion and woke up back at his tea-shop, Dormouse dozing at the table and a cold cup of tea beside his bed. He drank a bit but spat it back up.

Now, no matter how hot he made the tea, it always tasted cold and disgusting. No matter the flavour.

"It can't be..." Hatter whispered to himself as he remembered the porcelain headed man from that afternoon. The man had responded to his voice instantly, just like March always would with his freaky hearing. Alice was talking to him gently across the fire, something about not leaving Wonderland without Jack. Maybe Hatter should be more like her, should have been anyway. He shouldn't have given up, shouldn't have let March take care of them both on his own. Should have fought off all of the Suits and protected them both. He should have been more like Alice is. "Jack's a lucky guy." Hatter murmured.

"What?" Alice asked, looking up at him.

Hatter blinked back at her owlishly. He couldn't get closer to the fire without being sat in it and setting himself alight. And still he felt so cold. "Nothing." Hatter muttered. He stood up and walked away, thoughts of dark sparkling eyes and sandy hair plaguing him as he walked, clutching his hat in his cold hands. He can still taste March on his tongue if he closes his eyes and pretend everythings okay.

* * *

Fic hasn't been beta'd so any mistakes are my own. I saw Syfy's Alice after watching Tim Burton's Alice and been a little disappointed by it but then I was blown away by SyFy's Alice. Andrew Lee Potts grew on me very quickly and the only thing I wanted more of was Mad March- I wanted to know what had happened between him and Hatter and so on. This is my, slashy, version of what I think happened but the slash isn't heavy so if you ignore the kisses then its still a plausible explanation. :D

Rememer- reviews are love.

Akaiba xxx


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